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With that said, most of my young city lawyer friends live in either apartments, townhouses or smaller homes albeit in good neighborhoods. Job demands simply don't permit them to be keeping large houses >1hr from work.
THIS!!!
First, to answer your question, in your shoes I would get the smaller house in the better district since it is your intention to sell in 5-10 years. You will (hopefully!) have more space than you do now and it will be easier to sell in a desirable 'hood. I would also look for the town with the above requirements that also has the shortest commute for your husband.
Next, I echo wholeheartedly Forest Hills Daddy's above sentiments. We just bought our first home in Bronxville (the PO, so in the city of Yonkers). We love our home and do not regret the choice we made. We knew we would go private for schooling (always our intention) and our neighborhood is full of families that do likewise. I don't worry about resale as (1) the last two homes on the block behind us went under contract in less than a week and for full ask and (2) we don't plan on selling in the near future. But, we had NO IDEA of the upkeep of a home, and I am not talking about unforeseen repairs, just daily maintenance!! My husband is in a high stress job with long hours, so house maintenance falls to me. In addition, he isn't handy, so we have to hire out 99% of what gets done around here. That gets expensive. We also have two young children (3 and 6 months) so I don't have much time to devote to handiwork even if I could do it myself (basics, yes, plumbing, no). We thought we would paint the interior and that would be that. Little did we know that we would have a leak in one of the bathrooms. Not catastrophic (leaked a little into garage) but the fix was $600. Then there's the lawn maintenance. Didn't seem unreasonable as we don't have a huge lawn but there's fertilizing, aerating and all that jazz. Service maintenance calls for A/C and heat. The list goes on! We didn't really think about all this. I now know why I grew up in a house that was in disrepair - my parents couldn't afford to hire anyone to fix things!!! My husband said yesterday that the problem isn't that he doesn't know how to fix anything, the problem is he doesn't have the time or desire to learn either. I think we might be city/apartment people but we will enjoy our time "in the country" as much as possible and revisit at a later date!
So, just throwing this out there. Think about how much of a house you want and the area as it seems like your husband will be working long hours and you will have to do most of the legwork for the house.
I would just take the better house in the nicer area: it's your quality of life at stake!
If your gonna drop all this cash on NY area real estate then at least get a half-decent house
Plus, school districts can and have changed for the past (and some have even improved) so there really is no telling how a school system will be in 30+ years anyways (if you ever want to sell).
..But whatever works for you.. At least make sure the crappier house meets all of your needs.
Last edited by LongIslandPerson; 07-01-2013 at 02:18 PM..
Next, I echo wholeheartedly Forest Hills Daddy's above sentiments. We just bought our first home in Bronxville (the PO, so in the city of Yonkers). We love our home and do not regret the choice we made. We knew we would go private for schooling (always our intention) and our neighborhood is full of families that do likewise. I don't worry about resale as (1) the last two homes on the block behind us went under contract in less than a week and for full ask and (2) we don't plan on selling in the near future. But, we had NO IDEA of the upkeep of a home, and I am not talking about unforeseen repairs, just daily maintenance!! My husband is in a high stress job with long hours, so house maintenance falls to me. In addition, he isn't handy, so we have to hire out 99% of what gets done around here. That gets expensive. We also have two young children (3 and 6 months) so I don't have much time to devote to handiwork even if I could do it myself (basics, yes, plumbing, no). We thought we would paint the interior and that would be that. Little did we know that we would have a leak in one of the bathrooms. Not catastrophic (leaked a little into garage) but the fix was $600. Then there's the lawn maintenance. Didn't seem unreasonable as we don't have a huge lawn but there's fertilizing, aerating and all that jazz. Service maintenance calls for A/C and heat. The list goes on! We didn't really think about all this. I now know why I grew up in a house that was in disrepair - my parents couldn't afford to hire anyone to fix things!!! My husband said yesterday that the problem isn't that he doesn't know how to fix anything, the problem is he doesn't have the time or desire to learn either. I think we might be city/apartment people but we will enjoy our time "in the country" as much as possible and revisit at a later date!
Yes, currently renting a house (LL thankfully takes care of lawn) but if ever I take the next step to rent another or buy, it will be a suburban duplex or townhouse in a good SD until working hours in wall st. are magically reduced by 30% which will never happen. Also little time in the weekend to take care of a home as Saturdays are for kids' lessons and Sundays are work-work-work.
I have a couple of co-workers who live in Katonah, New Canaan and Bedford but they are much higher up in the pecking order and have the convenience of leaving the office at 5:30pm.
you are not going to want to uproot your kids when they are in 5th grade to get to a better school system. Besides at that point they have already learned all of the bad habits
Honest, the OP needs to visit the King Street school and the Port Chester High school before she can make any decision. It's not something one can get off the internet or CD.
you are not going to want to uproot your kids when they are in 5th grade to get to a better school system. Besides at that point they have already learned all of the bad habits
any reason why you wanted to bump an 8+ year old thread? Her twins are now almost 10.
Always go for the better school district, even if it's only for resale value.
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